France will no longer dictate to Africans, Macron says

OUAGADOUGOU, Burkina Faso, (Reuters) – President Emmanuel Macron today sought to make a clean break from his predecessors saying that he came from a generation that would not tell Africans what to do and would focus his efforts on bridging ties between Africa and Europe.

“I am from a generation that doesn’t come to tell Africans what to do,” Macron said during a speech to university students in the Burkinabe capital Ouagadougou. “I am from a generation for whom Nelson Mandela’s victory is one of the best political memories.”

Macron is on a three-day visit to West Africa that includes an EU-Africa summit in Ivory Coast’s capital Abidjan.

“I will not stand by those who say the African continent is one of crises and misery. I will be alongside those who believe that Africa is neither a lost continent or one that needs to be saved.”

French President Emmanuel Macron and Burkina Faso’s President Roch Marc Christian Kabore review an honour guard at the Presidential Palace in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso, November 28, 2017. REUTERS/Ludovic Marin/Pool